


The Bountymen

by audiaphilios



Series: From Tumblr With Lo-- [36]
Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Bounty Hunters, Alternate Universe - Western, American Civil War, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-05
Updated: 2017-02-05
Packaged: 2018-09-22 04:03:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 517
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9582842
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/audiaphilios/pseuds/audiaphilios
Summary: They’re always glad when they can stop in to see the sheriff of Samwell, their old friend Jack Zimmermann.





	

**Author's Note:**

> [shitty-check-please-aus](http://shitty-check-please-aus.tumblr.com) posited:  
>  AU suggestion: Holster and Ransom are outlaws in the old west. their nicknames do not change.
> 
> My response:  
> Are they outlaws, or are they bounty hunters?
> 
> Because just picture them roaming the West together, tracking down undesirables and villains. They’d fought together on the Union side in the war, and didn’t see any reason to stop having each other’s backs after the fighting was over.
> 
>  
> 
> [Originally posted to tumblr October 15, 2016.](http://audiaphilios.tumblr.com/post/151810011025/au-suggestion)

They’re always glad when they can stop in to see the sheriff of Samwell, their old friend Jack Zimmermann. He’d been a captain in the Union army, Holster and Ranson served under him. Jack was left in charge of a failed campaign, saw a lot of men fall, is still living with the blame of that. His father was one of the great generals and was an advisor to President Johnson and now President Grant. (Does the former have a son that appears periodically with cryptic messages, presumably from the Big Guy in Washington? Maybe.)

Shitty is Jack’s deputy, the drunken-cowboy type that befriended Jack when he was sleeping it off in the drunk tank, and revealed a knowledge of the law that made Jack want to shake him for wasting it on booze and gambling. Shitty’s reformed, mostly, but still spends an unconscionable amount of time under-dressed. He left the East Coast due to family conflicts, and probably comes from steel/railroad money.

Where does Eric Richard Bittle come in? Well, he swears they’ve got the wrong guy when Ransom and Holster track him down outside of Vegas, but don’t they all? But Bitty the Kid here’s a petit blond with soft hands, and one of the fastest fellows they’ve ever had to chase. Yeah, they’re sure they’ve got the fellow matching the description for the train and bank heists-- and the Southern accent’s not doing him any favors in their eyes. They’ve been chasing this kid for months, and they’re glad to finally bring him in to Samwell-- even if that means foregoing the delicious trail food he’s been fixing them. (Look, they’re not cruel, and he’s not... he’s not a _bad_  guy, just a badguy.)

Jack, of course, hates most criminals and, worse still, Southerners. Bitty swears he’s no murderer, that he just happens to have been in the wrong place at the wrong time-- or maybe trouble’s following him. But he’s clearly guilty of something, the way he hasn’t settled any one place, and if the way he flinches and looks away from Jack means anything. (Maybe the railroad sabotage he seems to admire in conversation with Shitty? ”It’s not right, how they treat the farmers, those people are the backbone of our nation and put bread on our tables!” He’d love to tie him to something like that, but to be honest Shitty seems much more invested in--and creative about--bringing down the monopolies.

Yet there’s something in the story he tells that rings a bell, and reminds Jack of another small blond with quick hands, but a much shorter temper and itchier trigger finger. Someone he thought he’d left in the past. Someone who somehow wasn’t there on that last day with him and Ransom and Holster, that last campaign, when he should have been on Jack’s line. The day the Confederates somehow knew they were coming. The day Jack learned that you can’t trust even those closest to you. But he thought he’d left all that behind him.

So is trouble following Bitty, or is it tracking down Jack?

**Author's Note:**

> Tags from the original post: 
> 
> #PROBABLY DON'T READ THESE TAGS BEFORE READING THE REST #HINT: IT'S BOTH #BITTY'S JUST A CONVENIENT PATSY #KENT KNOWS THAT HOLSTER AND RANSOM ARE BOUNTY HUNTERS AND FIGURES THEY WILL LEAD HIM BACK TO JACK #THEY COULD ACCOMPLISH SO MUCH TOGETHER HIM AND JACK #THINGS DO NOT GO ACCORDING TO PLAN FOR KENT PARSON #I AM AU TRASH #WESTERN AU #HOLSTER AND RANSOM #BOUNTY HUNTERS #JACK THE SHERIFF #SHITTY THE DEPUTY #BITTY THE OUTLAW #AUDIA WATCHES TOO MANY WESTERNS #KENT PARSON THE TRAITOR #KENT THE OUTLAW


End file.
